Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Displays (TFT-LCDs) having features such as small size, low power consumption, no radiation, etc., have been developed rapidly in recent years and have dominated the current flat panel display market. A main structure of a liquid crystal display is a liquid crystal panel. During a process of manufacturing the liquid crystal panel, design and control of a cell gap is one of key technologies of liquid crystal displays, and may directly affect quality of the liquid crystal displays.
A liquid crystal display panel includes an array substrate and a color filter substrate that are oppositely arranged to form a cell, and a liquid crystal layer filled between the array substrate and the color filter substrate. There are data lines, gate lines, and a plurality of pixel units defined by the data lines and the gate lines. Each of the pixel units includes a thin film transistor (TFT) and a pixel electrode. A first liquid crystal alignment layer is coated on the array substrate. The color filter substrate includes a color filter, a black matrix and a second liquid crystal alignment layer coated on the color filter substrate. The black matrix corresponds to positions of the data lines and the gate lines, and defines sub-pixel units. A thickness of the liquid crystal layer (i.e., cell gap) is mainly controlled by spacers disposed between the array substrate and the color filter substrate.
A spacer may be made of polymer having elasticity. The spacers may be formed on the array substrate or the color filter substrate, and are located in regions where the black matrix is located. For example, when the spacers are formed on the color substrate, spacer-supporting regions are formed in the array substrate, and upper parts of the spacers abut on corresponding spacer-supporting regions of the array substrate. The spacer-supporting regions are usually formed in the data lines. Such a structure has disadvantages that when the panel is squeezed, the upper parts of the spacers may move and uniformity of the cell gap of the panel may be changed accordingly, resulting in uneven brightness of the liquid crystal panel.